What does “das Maul” mean in German?

German has two words for “mouth” and they are not interchangeable. Mund is for people; Maul is for animals. Use Mund for a smile, a kiss, or anything human — but when describing a crocodile’s jaw or a frog’s face, Maul is the right and neutral choice. Call a person’s mouth a Maul and it reads as an insult. The split is one of the first things that makes German animal vocabulary feel surprisingly precise.

The word Maul traces back to Proto-Germanic mūlą, meaning “muzzle” or “snout” — the same source as Dutch muil and Danish mule (and unrelated to English “mule,” which comes from Latin mulus). Mund, by contrast, is cognate with English “mouth” and Latin mentum (chin). In this clip the contrast lands vividly: the narrator points to their own face and says “bei Menschen heißt das Mund, bei Tieren heißt das Maul*” — then goes on to describe the crocodile’s enormous, long Maul snapping shut, and the frog flicking flies with the long tongue inside its Maul. Two animals, one rule, demonstrated back to back.